Nokia debuted its 5800 touch screen phone - but don't call it an iPhone killer. Or wanna be. Or whatever. They can say what they want, but it sure looks like an iPhone rip off to me. What is interesting is the fact that seminal devices and interfaces often spawn imitators...and most think, "oh, that's the only way to do it, of course it looks like that." Well then how does the *first* one get made? Oh yeah...someone has some creativity.

LG has a more interesting entry. Renoir is more camera than phone and it has some very cool tricks wrt focusing, etc. The collision of camera and phone needs a few kicks in the rear, this might be one of them.

I have to admit that I renewed my subscription to .mac (now mobileme) largely due to the concept of "exchange for the rest of us." I have multiple machines and synchronicity is an issue. Of course like all technologies, the promise is greater than the delivery. And in this case, mobileme had some serious issues. As in stuff not working. So now Apple has issued a public mea culpa and is giving people a free month of service. Well that's all fine and dandy, but I have to admit that there are workarounds (kludges, hacks, etc) that obviate mobileme at least for my purposes. Tools are supposed to obviate hacks, but sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.

Maybe some day a tech company will get it right. But I wouldn't hold my breath. Apple gets closer than the rest, but they still have a ways to go, especially in managing our "digital world." Of course I could just throw things away...

The new iPhone goes on sale at 8am. I won't be in line...rather spend my money on another camera.

Webmonkey has an article covering the keynote around Google's "Android" mobile phone/device software. There are screenshots of the UI, and plenty of youtubery. Will this be an iPhone killer? The hardware maker is unknown, and it is supposed to ship "last half of 2008." Figure in time for xmas (they hope and pray). Meanwhile, His Steveness will take the stage on June 9th and likely announce v2.0 of the iPhone. I suppose that Google wanted to try and upstage Apple with their Android announcement, but by all rumors and accounts, Android will dissapear from the blogs once the 3G iPhone is unveiled. We'll see how it plays out, but I'm betting that Apple will not roll snake eyes here. They predicted 10M units by the end of 2008. They've got a LONG way to go to make that so v2.0 will have to be all that and a bag of chips. Look for a lower price, multiple carriers, 3G (of course) and a surprise or three. Time will tell...

AppleInsider is reporting that v2 of Apple's iPhone software will support geotagging with the camera. If so, I'll be a happy camper. I'm a firm believer in as much automated metadata as possible. Timestamps make my life much easier, as I can narrow in on my data when viewing a sort according to date (cross referenced with email). Adding location data automatically is the next great "killer app." So far GPS has been hobbled by klunky interfaces and oblique implementations. Knowing Apple, it'll likely get the UI right (though it won't please the übergeeks) and you can have seamless location-based tagging and services.

Of course the services is where things get really interesting. Google Earth on the iPhone? Hmm...

Well, the Apple online stores are out of iPhones, and given that Steve wants to sell 8 gazillion by the end of the year, most pundits are saying that the 3G phone is right around the corner. Works for me, although given the current budget state (mine, not the country's), I'll wait a bit before upgrading.